Royal Road to Card Magic The

your card is not there.' You are not supposed to know whether it is there or not. Throw the three cards casually on the table. Then show several cards at the bottom. Finally gather up the three cards by placing the pack on them and picking up all together.
    You will have the chosen card on the top, yet the onlookers will be convinced, if you have done your part simply and naturally, that the chosen card is lost in the pack and beyond your control. Thus you have succeeded in the most important part of the trick, for whenever a chosen card is controlled in some abnormal fashion your purpose is defeated. The real illusion of card magic begins with the conviction on the part of the spectator that his card is lost among the others. Without that conviction the trick has already failed.
    Retaining Top Stock
    The overhand shuffle control is extremely useful in tricks where it is necessary to retain a card or cards at the top of the pack while giving the impression that you are shuffling the cards.
    To do this, undercut the lower half with the right hand and, in the first movement of the shuffle, injog the first card drawn off by the left thumb. Upon it shuffle the rest of the cards held in the right hand. Undercut below the injogged card and throw this packet on top. Although you have seemingly mixed the cards, you have retained the desired cards at the top.
    Overhand False Shuffle
    Many fine card feats depend on the fact that the pack has been arranged in a certain order familiar to the magician. To retain that order while apparently mixing the cards thoroughly, proceed as follows:
Begin an overhand shuffle by undercutting half the deck.
Run five cards on to the original upper half of the deck. That is to say, pull off five cards singly with the left thumb, then throw the remaining packet on top, making it protrude about 12 mm (½ in) beyond the outer end of the cards in the left hand (figure 5).

3. Press the tip of the left index finger against the face of this protruding packet and seize the cards below it by the ends, between the right thumb and middle finger. Lift them, again run five cards and throw the remainder on top.
    The whole pack will now be in its original order.
    The action consists simply of reversing the order of five cards in the middle of the deck and then, by reversing these same five cards again, bringing them back to their original order, the rest of the cards not having been disturbed. Done smoothly and rather rapidly, not looking at your hands and while addressing the spectators, the shuffle is completely deceptive.
    Overhand Shuffle Practice Routine
    The best method of practising the various overhand shuffles is to go through them in sequence.
Turn the top card face upward.
Shuffle it to the bottom and back to the top again.
Shuffle it to the bottom. Shuffle again, retaining it there, then shuffle it back to the top.
Reverse the card now at the bottom. Shuffle, retaining the top and bottom cards in position.
Shuffle the top card to the next to bottom and back to the top. The two reversed cards should be at the top and bottom. Check your work.
Control the top reversed card only by means of the overhand shuffle control, which will give you the facility in the run, the injog and the undercut.
    Again check your work. The original top card should now be the fourth from the top of the pack. If that is the case and you have made the shuffles smoothly, you have made excellent progress towards acquiring this most useful of all card sleights. Practise until you can make the shuffles without looking at your hands and at the same time keep up an easy flow of conversation.
    With the simple principles explained in the preceding sections, which can be learned in the course of a pleasant half-hour's toying with a pack of cards, you have a golden key which will unlock the door to many of the most entertaining card tricks it is possible to perform. Since the best way to learn to do magic is to do magic, in the next section several tricks are explained in which the principles you have already learned are put to use.
    TRICKS WITH THE OVERHAND SHUFFLE
    Having acquired facility with the overhand shuffle and the various manoeuvres accomplished by its use, the royal road to card magic, with all its surprising twists and turns, opens before you a vista of exciting adventures, of which you are the protagonist.
    A good card trick - and by that we mean a card trick that entertains, surprises, amuses and puzzles an audience -